The Interactive Commons (IC) at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) was established in 2014 as a center to connect individuals from across our campus and our region through advanced visualization to further research and education.
We believe that interdisciplinary engagement is the force that compels unique and transformative solutions to our society’s most challenging problems. With a team of developers, artists, professors and business leaders, we are working together to define the future of our university by anticipating changes in the broader world.
Collaborate
+ Connect
An underlying theme of our work is to demonstrate new ways that people could work together in collaborative and productive ways. Unconventional partnerships, e.g. between professors in the Department of Physics and the Department of Dance, have yielded developments in mixed reality (MR) technology that were then applied to neurosurgery mapping devices.
The IC has established several key resources that will allow people to create and work with visual information. All of these are located in the IC's space, which can be accessed through a newly constructed entrance on the north side of the Thwing Building, next to the Tinkham Veale University Center and the Kelvin Smith Library.
Design +
Build
Working with disparate collaborators from across our university, region, and beyond, we design and build custom visualizations that bring the invisible into view. Data becomes tangible, connections become apparent and innovations rise to the surface. We specialize in large, shared-group experiences, and published the first 3rd party app to the HoloLens App store.
The IC holds the world record in the largest shared-group mixed reality experience, which took place over the course of 8 separate performances of Imagined Odyssey, a co-production with the CWRU Dept. of Dance.
Engineered
Serendipity
The IC is meant to create a place and process to encourage radically different academic disciplines to begin new conversations, exchange knowledge and find new ways to look at complex problems—something that happens today more through happenstance or serendipity. We hope to spark paradigm-shifting innovations that address the big challenges facing our society to make life, and the world around us, better.
This node diagram depicts the collaborative culture at Case Western Reserve University. Each dot represents an individual investigator, and more than 10,0000 collaborative grants link investigators across our campus. The IC endeavors to connect even more of these dots to find collaborative solutions to the complex challenges that face our world.
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LATEST PRESS & MEDIA
HoloAnatomy Featured in EDUCAUSE Digital Review 2020
EDUCAUSE Review, a magazine that takes a broad look at current development and trends in technology to see how it...
Slate.com – Body of Knowledge
While cadavers provide a hands-on learning experience, COVID-19 is forcing the question of if students can learn differently. David Axelrod,...
Dance Department Collaborator With IC Honored With John S. Diekhoff Award
Karen Potter, Chair of the Department of Dance at CWRU was awarded The Diekhoff Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to...
The IC’s Work on Remote HoloAnatomy Featured in Wall Street Journal
During the month of March, the IC facilitated the shipping of 185 HoloLenses to all first year med students at CWRU....
IC Hosts Global Senior Leaders of Canon
Roughly 20 global senior leaders of Cannon made a visit to Cleveland in late February 2020. During their trip to...
Celebrating The Appointment Of Mark Griswold, PhD
Mark Griswold, PhD, Faculty Director at the Interactive Commons and Professor of Radiology was awarded The Pavey Family Designated Professor...
CWRU and IC HoloAnatomy® Partners Announced
CWRU announced that they will be partnering with five universities who have signed on to begin teaching with HoloAnatomy®. The...
IC Travels to Las Vegas for Consumer Electronics Show 2020
An annual technologies trade show held in Las Vegas where businesses and innovators gather to introduce the next generation technologies...
